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Intune’s Explorer lets administrators ask natural-language questions about supported areas of their managed environment, review Copilot’s summary, and follow up on results. Depending on the result, that can mean investigating a resource, exporting data, or adding listed users or devices to a group for app or policy targeting. Explorer works with available query views—not unrestricted questions against every Intune field.
What Explorer does—and what it does not do
Explorer is the data-exploration part of Copilot in Intune. It matches a natural-language request to an available query view, runs the query with any required parameters, and helps interpret the result. Copilot can explain the query, summarize results, suggest further queries, and recommend possible actions. These are aids to investigation; review the results and decide whether a suggested action is appropriate for your environment.
Coverage and query capabilities evolve. Use the prompt suggestions shown in the admin center, and phrase requests around a specific area or outcome rather than assuming any question can be answered. Microsoft’s examples include “what are the top 5 apps” and “Get Platform devices that are noncompliant.” Microsoft’s Explorer documentation describes the supported workflow and areas.
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Microsoft documents Explorer query areas for:
- Advanced Analytics
- App configuration and app protection
- Apps
- Audit logs
- Compliance
- Device configuration
- Device updates
- Device properties
- Endpoint Privilege Management
- Role-based access control
- Users and groups
- Windows Autopilot deployments
How to run a query and follow through
- In the Microsoft Intune admin center, open Explorer and start entering a natural-language request. Consider the prompt suggestions that appear as you type; they reflect available query views.
- Choose a concrete question and supply any required parameters, such as a platform or device detail. Examples from Microsoft documentation include “what are the top 5 apps” and a request to get platform devices that are noncompliant. A related device-query example is “Which devices aren’t encrypted?”; device query is a distinct feature, discussed below.
- Run the query. Review the result alongside Copilot’s explanation and summary. If the result needs more context, try a suggested follow-up query or investigate an individual resource.
- When useful, export the results. For a result listing users or devices, Explorer can also add those items to an existing group or a new group. You can then target apps or policies to that group, subject to your permissions and the relevant assignment settings.
- If you add items to a group, check the progress report created for that operation. Microsoft says this report is not available again later, so export it if you need to retain a record.
Access, permissions, and licensing
Explorer requires Security Copilot to be enabled and configured, including its first-run setup, and the Intune plugin to be enabled. The administrator also needs an appropriate Security Copilot or Microsoft Entra role. Intune role-based access controls and scope tags continue to apply: Copilot only exposes data and allows actions within the administrator’s assigned permissions. A successful query therefore does not imply visibility into every tenant resource or permission to act on every result.
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Microsoft states that Copilot in Intune is included with Security Copilot and does not require a separate Intune-specific Copilot license. Do not apply that statement to every related feature: Microsoft separately says that using device query requires a license that includes Advanced Analytics. The device-query examples “Which devices aren’t encrypted?” and “Show me Windows 11 devices” should not be mistaken for proof that those queries belong to Explorer’s workflow or have the same licensing requirements. See the Microsoft overview of Security Copilot in Intune for the broader feature and licensing distinctions.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.How Explorer fits into the wider Copilot in Intune suite
Copilot in Intune includes capabilities beyond Explorer. Microsoft’s overview also describes policy and setting management, device details and troubleshooting, Endpoint Privilege Management request analysis, Microsoft Surface troubleshooting, and Windows 365 Cloud PC insights. It also describes specialized Intune agents for change review, device offboarding, policy configuration, and vulnerability remediation.
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Those capabilities address different tasks; they should not all be treated as Explorer actions. Use Explorer when the job is to query supported Intune data and work from the results. For policy work, troubleshooting, or an agent-led workflow, select the corresponding capability and check its specific configuration, permissions, and licensing requirements.
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